Vazhuthananga Upperi/ Mezhukupuratti ~ Malabar Eggplant Stir Fry

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This month, I am joining up with a new challenge. I have joined it up more to push myself to blog. Every time, I feel that my creative juices are getting stuck, so such challenges are good enough to get me thinking out of the box. The posts I am scheduling thisPin month seem to be majorly challenge posts too, hehe… Vidya and Jolly jointly conduct the A-Z Recipe Challenge, where the members cook from an alphabet every alternate month. The beauty of this challenge is you pick up an ingredient which starts with the concerned alphabet and cook with it. I had become a part of the group in October but waited till I would feel fine to join in. When the alphabet “E” was declared for January, I gave my name but I had forgotten that I would have my whole entourage at home and that would mean limited experimenting. Since I had already signed up, I quickly picked my dish and made sure I clicked it, so that I don’t miss the challenge. 🙂

So for the letter “E”, I decided to choose “eggplant”. Eggplants are also called aubergines or even more as brinjal. This purple colored vegetable is available in various sizes and shapes. It is a vegetable I rarely cook with, since it hardly has any takers. But whenever I have cooked it, it has been accepted well. The most frequent way it gets cooked in my home is in this dal curry for lunch. Here are other recipes that include this humble vegetable:

Sri Lankan Batu Moju

Microwave Baingan Bartha

Bagara Baingan

Easy Mousakka

It wasn’t tough choosing the recipe to cook for this challenge. It had to be something that got me back to my roots. Umma would occasionally make stir fry with eggplants when it is available in season. Right now, the huge eggplants that come from Oman are plentiful and well priced. Not that I loved it thanks to its slimy texture once cooked, but I would nonetheless eat it. After all, did we ever have an option of saying “no” to whatever our mothers cooked for us? 🙂 Nowadays, kids are way too vocal with their dislikes and even if we tell them, “It’s fine, don’t eat!” like I do, they would still fix up something for themselves with whatever is available in the fridge. 😕 Anyway, coming back to the dish, this is a simple dish that comes together very easy and is like comfort food with rice, some moru curry and a piece of fish fry! I actually eat this into my rice so that I don’t feel much of the sliminess! HD loves it and enjoys it a lot, and mostly ends up eating majority of what is made. Hehe… Off to this super easy recipe…

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5 from 9 votes

Vazhuthananga Upperi/ Mezhukupuratti ~ Malabar Eggplant Stir Fry

Course Vegetarian

Cuisine Malabar

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 25 minutes minutes

Servings 2

Author Rafeeda

Ingredients

• 1 large eggplant
• 1 tbsp coconut oil
• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 sprig curry leaves
• 2 shallots pearl onions/ cheriyulli, peeled and chopped
• 2 green chillies slit
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/4 tsp red chilli powder
• 1/4 tsp fennel powder
• Salt to taste

Instructions

• Chop the eggplant into small pieces. It is not necessary to remove the skin. Wash well, sprinkle some salt and keep in a colander till use.
• In a saucepan, heat coconut oil. Splutter mustard seeds. Fry the curry leaves.
• Add the shallots and green chillies and saute for a minute.
• Add the eggplant along with the spice powders and salt and give a good toss.
• Cook on low flame, stirring occasionally till wilted and cooked.
• Serve hot with rice and curry.